ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2019
Development and evaluation of a droplet digital PCR assay for the diagnosis of paucibacillary leprosy in skin biopsy specimens.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparative analysis of the leprosy detection rate regarding its clinical spectrum through PCR using theFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Pooled it
- Application of ddPCR for diagnosis and treatment monitoring of visceral leishmaniasis patients: addition of an ultrasensitive tool to the diagnostic arsenal.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Advancing the fight against tuberculosis: integrating innovation and public health in diagnosis, treatment, vaccine development, and implementation science.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Review
- Leprosy: a disease that has never gone away.Infectious diseases & immunity · 2025Article
- Validation of the performance of a point of care molecular test for leprosy: From a simplified DNA extraction protocol to a portable qPCR.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2024Article
- Occurrence of 40 sanitary indicators in French digestates derived from different anaerobic digestion processes and raw organic wastes from agricultural and urban origin.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- qPCR detection ofFrontiers in molecular biosciences · 2024Article
- Challenges and advances in serological and molecular tests to aid leprosy diagnosis.Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.) · 2023Review
- Case Report: Lepromatous Leprosy and Psoriasis: An Uncommon Coincidence.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2023Article
- MOVER approximated CV: A tool for quantifying precision in ratiometric droplet digital PCR assays.Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis · 2022Article
- The immune-suppressive landscape in lepromatous leprosy revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing.Cell discovery · 2022Article
- Application of Droplet Digital PCR to Detection ofInfection and drug resistance · 2022Review
- Rapid Multiplex Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (m-LAMP) Assay for Differential Diagnosis of Leprosy and Post-Kala-Azar Dermal Leishmaniasis.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2021Article
- Puerarin enhances intestinal function in piglets infected with porcine epidemic diarrhea virus.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Evaluation of Droplet Digital PCR Assay for the Diagnosis of Candidemia in Blood Samples.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- Isolation of Mycobacterium lepromatosis and Development of Molecular Diagnostic Assays to Distinguish Mycobacterium leprae and M. lepromatosis.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2020Article
- Development of a droplet digital PCR method for detection of Streptococcus agalactiae.BMC microbiology · 2020Article
- Prevention and Treatment of Leprosy - China, 2009-2019.China CDC weekly · 2020Review
- Recombinant polypeptide of Mycobacterium leprae as a potential tool for serological detection of leprosy.AMB Express · 2019Article
- Develop and Field Evolution of Single Tube Nested PCR, SYBRGreen PCR Methods, for the Diagnosis of Leprosy in Paraffin-embedded Formalin Fixed Tissues in Yunnan Province, a Hyper endemic Area of Leprosy in China.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2019Article
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12 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe reduced amounts of Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae) among paucibacillary (PB) patients reflect the need to further optimize methods for leprosy diagnosis. An increasing number of reports have shown that droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) is a promising tool for diagnosis of infectious disease among samples with low copy number. To date, no publications have investigated the utility of ddPCR in the detection of M. leprae. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a ddPCR assay for the diagnosis of PB leprosy. METHODOLOGY: The two most sensitive DNA targets for detection of M. leprae were selected from electronic databases for assessment of sensitivity and specificity by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and ddPCR. Control patients (n = 59) suffering from other dermatological diseases were used to define the cut-off of the duplex ddPCR assay. For comparative evaluation, qPCR and ddPCR assays were performed in 44 PB patients and 68 multibacillary (MB) patients. PRINCIPAL
findingsM. leprae-specific repetitive element (RLEP) and groEL (encoding the 65 kDa molecular chaperone GroEL) were used to develop the ddPCR assay by systematically analyzing specificity and sensitivity. Based on the defined cut-off value, the ddPCR assay showed greater sensitivity in detecting M. leprae DNA in PB patients compared with qPCR (79.5% vs 36.4%), while both assays have a 100% sensitivity in MB patients. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We developed and evaluated a duplex ddPCR assay for leprosy diagnosis in skin biopsy samples from leprosy patients. While still costly, ddPCR might be a promising diagnostic tool for detection of PB leprosy.
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